When Dietschy met Daisy — Apple's iPhone-recycling robot makes it to YouTube

Apple Daisy Recycling Robot
Apple Daisy Recycling Robot (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple has shown its recycling robot off to YouTuber Sara Dietschy.
  • Daisy is a robot designed to make it easier to recycle iPhone components.

Apple has long made lots of noise about Daisy, its iPhone-recycling robot. But it's rare that we get to see the machine in action. So when YouTuber Sara Dietschy shares a new video on-location with that big metal recycling machine, you watch. And you can do just that right here.

First, context. Apple says that its Daisy machine helps it to recycle up to 1.2 million iPhones each and every year, something that definitely isn't to be sniffed at. The robot can take apart all manner of iPhones and then make sure that all of the recyclable parts are sorted and sent to where they need to be, something traditional systems weren't so great at.

But how does it do it? That's where this video comes in. Check it out for all the answers!

It isn't just about taking parts out of Apple hardware, either. The company announced today that 20% of the materials that go into its products are recycled.

Apple today released new details on the increased use of recycled content across its products. For the first time, the company introduced certified recycled gold, and more than doubled the use of recycled tungsten, rare earth elements, and cobalt. Nearly 20 percent of all material used in Apple products in 2021 was recycled, the highest-ever use of recycled content. Apple released new details on this progress, its recycling innovation efforts, and clean energy in its 2022 Environmental Progress Report.

This, coupled with the work Daisy is doing, means iPhones are now more environmentally-friendly than ever. There's always room for improvement, of course, but Apple has a robot and that means that it gets it more cool points, at least. If recycling is important to you, this might be one of the best iPhone selling points to date.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.